Message from skroop

Something that Jennifer Jung-Kim mentioned in regard to her presentation that resonated with me was based on the chart she showed representing how “we” learn about Korea. I just thought it was so humorous that K-Pop was the first interaction or knowledge that people experience in regard to Korea. It is funny because it is true. Being a history teacher, I of course have a background knowledge of Korea’s history, but when talking to students the first conversation about Korea will be about K-Pop. Every year my students do a project in pairs on a country of their choice, and with about 20% of my students being Asian one group always wants to cover Korea. Even though the project focuses on history, geography, politics, etc...the Korea project is guaranteed to have at least a 2 minute clip from a K-Pop video on YouTube. The students always giggle as the video plays and the presenter makes a point to say it can’t be skipped when presenting on Korea.